Forced Interaction
by florensa
Summary: Lola leaves on a field trip, but not before organising some quality time for her new boyfriend and her best friend. Mel's still a little bitter over the past, while Brice's keeps coming back to bite him. (A.K.A Mel and Brice hang out and tease each other and possibly some hell dimension angst)


**Dear Zar, I wrote this part like six months ago and obviously never finished the story, so here is this and it shall be finished! One day! Hopefully! (I'm a bad friend I'm sorry)**

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"C'mon, Boo! It's just for a while. Please babe, for me?"

She smiled at me dazzlingly, and for a second I almost caved.

But then I remembered exactly_ who_ she wanted me to spend the my free day with.

"Babe, you know I love you but there is no way in heaven that I am babysitting that creep while you're off on some ultra fun cosmic field trip- "

"Brice is _not_ a creep!"

I raised an eyebrow at her.

"-anymore," she amended. "But seriously Boo, I need you to keep an open mind about this. Brice has totally been through a lot and he's really trying, okay?"

"My mind is like, uber-open! But I'm still coming to terms with the fact that he's back in heaven. Most of me still screams 'mortal enemy' whenever I hear his name." _A__nd I cannot believe you are actually with him!_ no matter how hard I tried to be happy for my soul mate, Lola dating Brice still felt like some kind of ultimate betrayal.

"He's changed, Boo!"

"Lollie...!" I whined. "He tried to kill me a bunch of times. He nearly actually beat Ruebs to death! I know that he's probably not 100% evil but how can you expect us to hang out like best buds?"

She just frowned at me. "If Sweet Pea can forgive him then so can you, babe. At least try. You know why he did what he did."

Okay, so maybe I was being slightly unfair. But Lola didn't really know what it had been like for me to have Brice as my cosmic stalker pretty much since day one. "Why can't Ruebs or Chase hang out with him? Take him to the dojo, or to visit some tigers."

Tigers sounded like a good idea actually. Maybe I'd get lucky and they'd eat him.

Lola shrugged. "They're busy. 'Sides, you and Brice have some serious bonding to do. I will not have my boyfriend and my best friend fighting all the time."

Okay, so Lola Sanchez may be my like, total soulmate, but sometimes she can be so stubborn. No matter how much I wanted to yell at her that her that her 'boyfriend' hated me, that he scared me, that Brice had completely fooled everyone before... I knew all my arguments would just make her more stubborn. Once Lola got something into her head, that was that!

"He's not going to be happy about this either," I grumbled, but my tone was accepting.

"Stop being a baby, Boo. He's not a bad guy. Promise me you'll give him a chance?"

And then she looked at me with the most perfect puppy dog face and I melted.

"Okay, fine. For you. But for the record I still think he's a creep."

"Omigosh thank you!" she squealed, giving me a quick squeeze and triumphant grin goodbye. "You're meeting him at Guru at eleven. And Boo?" She said, pulling away "He doesn't hate you. This was totally his idea." And then she skipped off.

I gaped after her.

Brice? Wanting to hang out with me? That seemed more than a little iffy.

But I'd (stupidly) promised Lola that I'd go. And Melanie Beeby _always_ keeps her promises.

I had some time before I had to meet him, so I went back to my room to change.

What's a girl supposed wear to a date with a supposedly ex member of the Opposition anyway?

In the end I went for casual. There was no way I was going to let him think I'd made an effort just to see him.

I threw on some skinny jeans and my 'Winging it!' shirt that Lola had gotten me for my birthday, topping it off with a spritz of my fave Attitude perfume, and tied my hair up with this v. sweet sparkly hair band that I'd bought a couple of days ago.

I smiled at my reflection. I still had a bit of a glow going on from spending yesterday with the angelic toddlers. I had to admit, I looked totally sublime!

I studied my luminous reflection for a moment, which made me wonder what Brice did for private study. Not that I cared, I totally didn't. But part of me was curious to see if he'd turn up with the telltale angelic glow.

Not really wanting to be late, I got down to Guru faster than I'd thought I would. After quickly casing the joint for any gorgeous blond ex-PODs, I decided to grab a milkshake while I waited.

"Heya Mel!" said Mo as I sauntered up to the bar. "The usual?"

"Not today, Mo. I'm meeting someone soon so I'll just grab a milkshake please!" Guru's milkshakes are absolutely to die for, all frothy and thick and sinfully chocolatey.

"Meeting Sanchez?" he asked, getting to work on my shake.

I shook my head. "Lola's on a field trip to Ancient Greece for drama. They're getting up close and personal with Sophocles." I felt my expression turn sour. "I'm meeting Brice."

Mo nodded. "I heard he was back. I remember Brice when he first got here. Brand new angel, but you'd never have known it looking at him. A natural, is what Michael said." I frowned, remembering Michael saying the exact same thing about me.

Mo slid my shake over the counter with a grin. "I'm glad you're givin' him a second chance, Mel," he said, which instantly made me feel guilty because that was the opposite of what I was doing.

I sipped my (v. delicious) shake thoughtfully. Maybe I really could learn to get along with Brice. After our little jaunt to the future, it was hard to totally put the blame on him...

"Here's your man, Mel," Mo warned cheerfully. My head whipped up and there he was, like something straight out of one of my worst nightmares and all of my misgivings came flooding back.

He was a total double of my crush from school back on Earth, a shape that I'd originally thought he took just to freak me out. Now I knew it was his true face, but that didn't exactly make it any better. He was utterly gorgeous, but his eyes were completely empty. Beautiful and deadly. I could even recall his voice, unnaturally persuasive and entrancing...

I quickly tore my eyes away, staring at the counter as he approached. I was totally freaking out inside. How was I supposed to actually interact with him? Usually when we met it was in the middle of some cosmic crisis, and he'd almost always been on the side of the Opposition. Seeing him in one of my favourite heavenly haunts was just way too much for me.

I glanced up. Bad idea Melanie! He was now directly in front of me, smiling that stupid bad boy smile of his. "Well hello there, darling."

I nodded at him. "Hi, Brice," I said, trying to sound like my usual bubbly self. Maybe if I pretended that this wasn't ten kinds of weird then he'd behave and we could actually have a nice time. Good job, Mel, I congratulated myself. In some situations a girl just had to be the bigger person.

"So, Melanie, what did you want to do today?" He asked with what I assumed was fake politeness.

"Well I sure didn't want to do THIS," I replied rudely, already forgetting my promise. "You're totally interfering with my train of thought here." To my surprise, he ignored my meanness.

"Oh? And what oh-so-important train of thought have I just derailed then?"

His voice was exactly how I remembered it, like he already knew exactly what I was thinking about.

"Being the bigger person," I replied reluctantly.

He smirked down at me. "You're not the bigger person here by a long shot, sweetheart."

What the sassafras? How dare he say that he was being more fair than me?

I gave him my best Melanie Beeby death glare. He just rolled his unnaturally blue eyes.

"It was a joke, Angel. Chill out."

_Oh._ Like, physically the bigger person. Duh, Mel. He's like a foot taller than you!

"Well if it was a joke then it wasn't funny," I said, tossing my hair. "I knew this was a bad idea."

"Yeah, well it means a lot to Lola. So I'm going to ask again what you want to do today, since we're stuck with each other and I'm graciously giving you the choice. Are you going to give me a mature response now darling?"

I considered turning him down, but the whole_ it means a lot to Lola _really got me. He totally knew my weak points, which was so infuriating you have no idea.

He clearly wasn't doing this for Lola. I had a super hard time imagining him doing anything for anyone apart from himself. _Or his little brother_ Helix reminded me mildly. I sighed heavily. If it made Lola happy I would do it.

But that didn't mean I was going to make it easy on Brice- I was going to make him utterly regret ever coming near my friends.

"Okay, bad boy," I told him. "First let's go and get our nails done. Heaven style."

CHAPTER 2

"A manicure, seriously?" he said, scooting into a seat next to me.

I flashed him my most innocent smile. "My cuticles are dry."

He muttered something v. un-angelic. "What was that, hon?" "Fine, but I'm picking the next thing."

I was so surprised that I nearly toppled off my stool! I nodded quickly because omigosh Brice getting a manicure is something I would have paid all of my earth allowance to see in heartbeat. So obviously I wasn't about to pass that up! Plus, we were on my home turf. There wasn't anything around here that he could pick that would phase this angel!

He sighed dramatically, taking a sip of- hey, wait a second!

"That's my shake you creep!" I yelled at him. He raised an eyebrow.

"Is that a problem, darling?"

I closed my eyes and tried to tune into some chilled out vibes. This was going to be a v. v. long day.

After Guru we made our way over to my favourite heavenly hair and nail salon, Cascade. I was already totally lost in my own little world, picking out the colours and dinky little decorations I'd get for my nails. Cascade had the most utterly sublime collection of nail colours and it had been aaaages since me and Lolly had last treated ourselves there.

I'd just decided on a truly gorgeous fuchsia pink to match my new sandals when Brice grabbed my shoulder.

"Erm, excuse me?"

He grimaced. "Sorry sweetheart but this whole manicure idea might be a no go..." We were right outside now.

"What? Are you honestly backing out already?! You've lived in the hell dimensions for crying out loud, surely a little nail polish isn't that scary."

"It's not," he assured me. "Trust me, I was all ready to let you pick out the colour but-" he twisted me around by the shoulder so that I was facing the shop window. "You see that girl working in there...?"

"Amy? Yeah I know her, she'll probably be doing our nails. And don't touch me!" He took his hand off my shoulder.

"I ran into her on a mission once."

"So? I run into other angels on earth all the time. Wait, are you trying to tell me she's an ex girlfriend or something?!"

He looked pained. "I wasn't on a mission for the Agency , Mel."

I sucked in a breath. "Omigosh, Brice, what did you do to that poor girl?"

"You remember London? The first time we met."

I shivered. Yes, I remembered. Brice had appeared in all his bad boy glory, during the London bombings. It was my first ever mission, and he'd reduced me to nothing in about five seconds just by talking to me. If I hadn't snapped out of it...

"What would have happened?" I asked, knowing that he'd get it.

He shrugged. "I'm not really sure what I was thinking. I was there for the little girl, but there you were... You were pretty deep under my spell, darling. If you hadn't broken free, who knows? I might have even been able to make you fall."

"And right now..."

"We'd probably be living it up on the dark side. We would have made one hell of a team."

I shuddered at the thought, but he was right. We could have done serious damage.

"And Amy?"

He shook his head. "Amy didn't have your strength. I was with Me- uh... another of the Opposition and between us Amy and her partner got hurt pretty bad . I'm guessing that's why she's here doing angelic makeovers rather than working in the field."

"Wow. I had no idea..."

"So not that I don't love getting my nails done but-"

"Nu-uh," I said, struck with sudden inspiration. "This is like, cosmic alignment or something. You have to go and apologise to her!"

Brice looked at me like 'what the hell Melanie?' but I just smiled at him. Call it angelic intuition but I just _knew _that this was his chance. Plus, I was really set on a manicure now!

"I can't just go up to her and ask her to forgive me for what I did, Mel." For a moment he looked totally defeated. Although I knew that Brice was a total cosmic drop-kick, I felt this like, wave of understanding. He knew that he'd done something so unforgivable he wasn't even going to try to make it better. But my inner angel was telling me that he _had_ to try.

He finally took his hand off my shoulder. "She'll probably freak out when she recognises me anyway."

I got a second brainwave. "No I bet she already knows you're back! Michael probably warned her like he did for me!"

"Michael_ warned _you?" He looked kinda upset. "Am I really that scary?"

The truthful answer was 'yes', but I couldn't let him know that he scared me. Plus, this off-balance Brice was kinda new for me. Waaaay less threatening.

"There's no excuse really," I said, completely ignoring his question.

He still looked kinda doubtful. "Okay, sweetheart but if this goes south I'm laying it on you."

I beamed at him. "Trust me!"

We stepped into the shop, me leading with Brice mooching along behind.

"Heya, Mel!" chirped the guy at the counter.

"Morning! Manicures for two thanks!"

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Brice rolling his eyes. Forgetting my own 'no touching' rule, I grabbing his sleeve and yanked him in front of me.

Amy turned around, probably to see who'd come in. She gasped, the dinky blood red bottle she'd been holding falling to the floor with a clatter.

"Brice?"

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**So much suspense. Wow. How will Amy react to seeing Brice again? Will he ever achieve forgiveness for his crimes? Will Mel and Brice ever receive their manicures?**

**Subscribe to find out the answers to these questions and more.**

(ily 3)


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